This application requests partial support for the 1988 FASEB Summer Research Conference on Retinoids. This conference is scheduled to be held June 19-24, 1988, at Vermont Academy in Saxtons River, VT. The 1988 conference will represent the fourth biennial FASEB conference on this topic. The three previous conferences, held in June 1982, 1984, 1986, were all highly successful, as evidenced by large attendance, active participation by attendees, and a strong sense of scientific stimulation and advance. In recent years there has been a great expansion of interest and research dealing with vitamin A and retinoids. Currently, the retinoid field is highly active and scientifically quite diverse. Scientists working in retinoids now include persons with interests and expertise in such different areas as nutrition, metabolism, differentiation and development, molecular and cell biology, cancer, dermatology, ophthalmology, and other areas as well. A major goal of the 1988 FASEB Summer Conference on Retinoids will be to bring together these scientists with diverse interests, and from many countries, to exchange information and ideas, and to stimulate the development of innovative research, particularly research that crosses disciplinary lines. The conference program will focus on several major basic science aspects of retinoid research, and on recent advances in clinical research and application. The session topics will include: selected aspects of retinoid metabolism; plasma and cellular retinoid-binding proteins; retinoids in cell differentiation and growth, and in development; retinoids and cancer; retinoids in dermatology; and retinoids and the eye. The basic science topics will link to each other, and also to the clinically-oriented sessions, providing a program that will be both diverse and coordinated. We are confident that this program, and the setting and format of the conference, will effectively stimulate interchange of information and cross-fertilization of ideas amongst different kinds of basic scientists, and between basic and applied scientists and clinical investigators.